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Thread: Players playing awakened animals
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2019-10-17, 03:33 PM (ISO 8601)
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Players playing awakened animals
What would your opinions be on someone playing an awakened animal in a campaign? I recently discovered the glorious badger and wondered what the thoughts were on the subject.
I am aware that the badger would not be able to hold normal weapons, I was looking at making a wizard.78% of DM's started their first campaign in a tavern. If you're one of the 22% that didn't, copy and paste this into your signature.
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2019-10-17, 03:45 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2019
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
As long as it fits the theme and the group is cool with it.
Knowledge brings the sting of disillusionment, but the pain teaches perspective.
"You know it's all fake right?"
"...yeah, but it makes me feel better."
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2019-10-17, 08:07 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2019
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
Heck, someone produced the Noble Wild books that turns animals into dnd races for 3x and PF.
So there are probably games out there where everyone is an animal.
So yeah, why not?
Presuming it flies by your DM of course.
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2019-10-17, 08:15 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2009
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
I mean, is it that different from playing with a typical druid?
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2019-10-17, 08:43 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2014
Re: Players playing awakened animals
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2019-10-17, 10:40 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2009
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
Meh. Fireball is just flaming sphere with zero stamina. You dern kids have no idea how to take things slow.
Now I want to see an awakened badger with enough shapechanging mojo to assume humanoid form frequently enough to pretend to be a druid who just really likes wild shaping into badgers.In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word Was Suck: A Guide to Truenamers
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2019-10-17, 11:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2009
Re: Players playing awakened animals
I got no problem with it. Don't think my current GM would either.
There are some obvious issues in both the lack of thumbs and lack of ability to verbalize. Easy way around the former is to simply start at a high enough level that you can already have acquired a pearl of speech or spent a couple skill points to have learned common. The hand thing is a bit tougher (unless you're something simian) but savage species has the gloves of man and the arms of the naga; albeit at some pretty steep costs.
On classes, a lot of the warrior classes can work just fine with claws and bites and Lords of Madness has mouth-pick weapons. Incarnum classes make for an interesting mental image. Casters magnify the problems in the previous paragraph though, wizards and archivists most of all. If you want to be the magical critter, I'd go with psionics.
Worse comes worse, you'll be alright as long as there's somebody with wild-empathy in the party.I am not seaweed. That's a B.
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2019-10-18, 08:50 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2016
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- Schwäbisch Hall
Re: Players playing awakened animals
"Ash" avatar by linklele - thank you again!
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2019-10-18, 09:04 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2014
Re: Players playing awakened animals
badger hengeyokai is an alternative rules legal option.
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2019-10-19, 08:03 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2008
Re: Players playing awakened animals
My sister played an awakened cat in a brief game. She was a fun character and would have been nice to have explored it more.
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2019-10-19, 03:43 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2013
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2019-10-19, 08:59 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2015
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
Which is a wise choice. if wizards were Wisdom casters they'd probably remove fireball from their spell lists so that their apprentices wouldn't fall into the trap of (suboptimal) blasting.
But Wizards are int casters so they probably invented fireball just as a test for young Wizards to tech them "read the spell description before you commit time and money to a spell".
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2019-10-20, 01:59 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2014
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- Tulips Cheese & Rock&Roll
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
Does a druid from a wild species get an urban shape ability? To turn into crows, rats and humanoids?
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2019-10-20, 10:07 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2019
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
Knowledge brings the sting of disillusionment, but the pain teaches perspective.
"You know it's all fake right?"
"...yeah, but it makes me feel better."
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2019-10-20, 03:23 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2007
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
Got to lv 19 as a Housecat Telepath before I soloed Cuthulu at the Finale.
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2019-10-21, 08:03 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2011
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- Tula, Russia
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
Dragon #293 already listed ECL for the whole Monster Manual - thus, if you can fix minor problems (like lacking intelligence or mobility), you can play it (Cat is +0)
Also, we already have playable Cheshire Cat, who have no thumbs too
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2019-10-21, 08:51 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2018
Re: Players playing awakened animals
Level Point System 5E
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Tier 5 Crippling Overspecialization
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2019-10-21, 10:38 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2015
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
Instead of gloves of man or arms of the naga (which are extremely expensive), a pair (pair!) of warforged mighty arms grafts are a mere 1,000 gp. Still more than most 1st level neophytes can afford, but much cheaper than the other options. And they allow you to use warforged hand/arm/ring components!
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2019-10-25, 03:50 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2019
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
Sorry for the late replies, I forgot my account password and had a small headache while switching browsers.
So the badger in mind would have had the Awaken spell cast on him, giving him a couple languages and the base INT score needed to start being an actual wizard. I've never heard of people doing it outside of the few stories, and wasn't sure if I'd get a book(or 3) tossed at me.
Now, to find someone else to DM is another matter entirely.
Thanks everyone for your replies!78% of DM's started their first campaign in a tavern. If you're one of the 22% that didn't, copy and paste this into your signature.
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2019-10-25, 04:09 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2011
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- Tula, Russia
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
One more way to play as (Dire) Animal: be of whatever race, join the Sacred Order of Man-Beasts, agree to let them cast Dire Reincarnation on you, die, and you will be reincarnated as some Dire Animal (Dire Badger is on roll 27-39)
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2019-10-25, 04:19 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2011
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- Sharangar's Revenge
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
Couple of questions: How will you carry your spellbook? How will you add spells to your spellbook? Are there feats you can take that eliminate the need for a spellbook? Not having thumbs makes it hard to do some of the fine-motor-control wizardy stuff. Eschew Materials is a thing, right? So at least you don't need to mess with material components. I'm certain the spells you learn will have somatic components modified to your physique. Does this mean you will need to research alternate versions of all new spells you want to learn? No, silly, me, you just take the Still Spell feat.
Can you scribe spell scrolls? Use spell scrolls? Make magic items? Magic wands are probably out, as are rings (unless you can wear them on your wrists as bracelets - which I would allow. But I'm not your DM)Warhammer 40,000 Campaign Skirmish Game: Warpstrike
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2019-10-25, 04:37 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2011
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- Tula, Russia
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
The Eidetic Spellcaster ACF (Dragon #357) replaces a Wizard’s familiar and Scribe Scroll with the ability to memorize and prepare spells without a spellbook.
Also, Spell Mastery.
Surrogate Spellcasting feat allow to do verbal and somatic components for nonhumanoids (such as Giant Eagle in example)
According to the Animals (Part Four) article, rings are among the suitable equipment for Animal Companions - thus, for Animals in general (at least, presuming sufficient limbs)
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2019-10-25, 05:02 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2019
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- Wyoming
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
The Awaken spell gives you 3d6 int. Doesn't say +3d6 int. Just, 3d6 (consider that the standard system is 4d6 drop lowest). Granted, you might be able to get 3 6's out of that, but you're running a lot of risk on having your primary mental score be somewhere between 8 and 14. Meaning you couldn't cast spells, or your spell selection would be very limited and you'd run into a hard cap around level 8 (though if you spent both your score increases you'd raise that cap to 10th). Okay, maybe level 8-10 is high enough. But you're also limiting your spell DCs for a good 10 levels of gameplay.
Just a fair warning, it's entirely possible the process you are proposing would make you unable to actually be a Wizard.Knowledge brings the sting of disillusionment, but the pain teaches perspective.
"You know it's all fake right?"
"...yeah, but it makes me feel better."
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2019-10-25, 05:26 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2019
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2019-10-25, 05:35 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2009
I am not seaweed. That's a B.
Praise I've received A quick outline on building a homebrew campaign
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2019-10-25, 05:46 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2007
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- Indianapolis
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2019-10-25, 06:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2018
Re: Players playing awakened animals
Level Point System 5E
Poker Roll
Tier 1 Master of All
Tier 2 Lightning Bruiser
Tier 3 Lethal Joke Character
Tier 4 Master of None
Tier 5 Crippling Overspecialization
Tier 6 Joke Character
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2019-10-25, 06:18 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
Re: Players playing awakened animals
I am not seaweed. That's a B.
Praise I've received A quick outline on building a homebrew campaign
Avatar by Tiffanie Lirle
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2019-10-25, 07:03 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2015
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Re: Players playing awakened animals
A psion with a StP erudite friend (or just the StP erudite itself) who has access to awaken in arcane format (through various means; there are multiple) can Empower as many times as he has psionic foci to spend. Or if he has the dominant ideal ACF, Metapower (Empower + awaken) and awaken on a customized mantle, he can Empower as many times as he wants.
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